'£13m a day' to educate immigrants

Thursday 14 October 2010 00:06 BST

Educating the children of immigrants in the UK cost almost 13 million pounds a day last year, a campaign group said

Educating the children of immigrants in the UK cost almost £13 million a day last year and more than half a million school places will be needed over the next five years to meet future demand, a campaign group has said.

Migrationwatch said the cost of the 550,000 extra school places will reach £40 billion over the five-year period and rise to £100 billion between now and 2020.

Sir Andrew Green, the campaign group's chairman, said: "These are some of the consequences of one of the most reckless and unpopular policies of any government in generations and they are now coming home to roost."

He continued: "The public are waking up to the speed and scale at which fundamental changes are being forced upon them, thanks to the policies of the previous administration, and our schools are but just one example.

"It will be replicated in many areas of our national life such as health, housing, natural resources and infrastructure and the costs will continue to increase for many years to come - all against a background of severe financial stringency."

The total costs of educating children of immigrants in state schools would be around £195 billion over a 25-year period, he added.

"Almost every family in England is being affected by the growing crisis over school places but no one will talk about its causes.

"While there are many benefits from controlled and managed immigration, our paper graphically demonstrates how families throughout the country suffer when governments duck the issue and fail to plan for the consequences."

The figures include the net number of migrants of school age entering the UK and children born in the UK whose parents were both born abroad.

They also include half the number of children born in the UK whose mother was born abroad, but whose father was UK-born.